Men’s tennis trounces Vassar 8–1

Men’s tennis (1–0) started its season with an 8–1 win over Vassar College at home, sweeping doubles on their way to the victory. This was one of two dual matches the Ephs will play during their fall season.

“Even though we were a little rusty and not executing that great in doubles, I was happy to see our energy high throughout the pro-sets; that alone allowed us to win all three matches,” Head Coach Dan Greenberg said. “As singles wore on, I thought we settled in and started to find our stride and actually played pretty well at most spots. Vassar put up a really good fight, so we were glad to come out with an 8–1 win.”

Alex Taylor ’20 paired up with Brian Grodecki ’18 in the No. 1 doubles slot to overcome their opponents 8–5. Sachin Raghavan ’18 and Rohan Shastri ’17 followed suit with an 8-5 win of their own. To complete the doubles sweep, Christian O’Connor ’19 and Deepak Indrakanti ’19 battled the Vassar duo of Juan Felipe Laso and Dom Demeterfi through extra sets on their way to an exciting 9–7 win. The duo improved its play as the set came to conclusion, forcing a break of serve to come out on top.

Hot off their doubles victories, Grodecki, Indrakanti, Raghavan and Taylor grabbed singles victories as well to put Williams well within the necessary five wins to clinch.

Grodecki and Indrakanti both won handily in two quick sets . At No. 1 singles, Grodecki demolished his opponent 6–0, 6–1, while at No. 2 Indrakanti prevailed in a quick 6–1, 6–1 match. Raghavan pulled off a thrilling three set victory, prevailing in a tense tiebreaker 10–8. Taylor battled in the second set but ultimately prevailed to clinch the important singles tally and his first singles victory for the men. The final score of Taylor’s match was 6–2, 6–4, as he came back from a second-set deficit to add to the winning tally for the Eph squad/ Ananth Raghavan ‘20 added his first collegiate victory to the mix, defeating his opponent 6–1, 6–1.

Vassar’s only win on the day came when the Brewers’ Laso overcame Shastri 6–2, 6–3 in a senior duel. Although Shastri came back and fought in the second set, the Vassar opponent was able to close out the match by holding the serve at 5–3.

Just as it was for Ephs’ first contest of the season, today’s match was the first of the year for Vassar College. They will possibly face the Ephs again at the USTA/ITA’s Regionals the first weekend of October.

“It was great to go out there and get our first win under our belt,” Alex White ’17 said. “The freshmen weren’t afraid to rise to the occasion in their first collegiate match, which was awesome to see. I think we played relatively well given how early in the season it is, but more importantly we came out and showed a lot of good energy and fight on every court.

“In particular, Sachin [Raghavan ’18] pulling out that 10–8 win in the third-set tiebreaker after being up 9–4 was indicative of the tough mentality we are working hard to build.”

The Ephs now turn their attention to the second and final dual match of the abbreviated fall season. They will square off against Springfield on Wednesday, Sept. 21 at 4 p.m. in Williamstown.